Designing a Science Fair Project

A great way to get kids excited about science is through creating a project for a
science fair. It doesn't have to win a prize to be a fun and rewarding experience!
Consider getting involved this year in either a local public or private school science
fair or a hoeschool science fair. !here are lots of opportunities for all grades " you
don't need to wait till high school to participate.
As you do your project# keep in ind that one additional benefit of doing a science
fair project is that you can incorporate several subjects at once$ research# writing#
spelling and graar# planning and organizing# and logic are just a few of the other
subjects you ight use.
%or a good science fair project# you'll need to use the scientific method. !his
ephasizes the iportance of experientation# rather than siply deonstrating
scientific principles. !he first step to creating a project# of course# is to figure out what
sort of project you want to do. !hink about what kind of scientific concepts have
interested you in the past " do you like nature projects& 'lectricity investigations&
Astronoy& (ooking at science agazines ight also help you coe up with ideas.
!he local science fair coittee should provide you with guidelines and a coplete
list of categories that projects can fit under.
)nce you've found a subject# do a little researchto help narrow down a workable
topic. Coe up with your 'proble' or key *uestion that will for the purpose of your
project. +ow you're ready to do soe ore research " use books# agazines# and the
internet to find out inforation about your topic. ,hen you've studied your subject
well# you can begin to analyze your data to for a hypothesisand possibly refine your
project's purpose.
+ow for the really 'hands"on' part " the experimentstage! Coe up with a procedure
for an experient that will help you answer your hypothesis. %or instance# you ight
want to find out how lack of sunlight affects the growth of bean plants. )ne way to
use experientation would be to cover soe bean plants for part of the day so that
they get less sunlight. -se a control .in this case# bean plants receiving a noral
aount of light/ to copare with your other test subjects .the plants receiving less
light/.
!he first step to getting accurate results for your experient is to carefully control as
any variables as possible. It works best to have only one changing variableat a
tie""in the bean plant exaple# the changing variable is the aount of light each
plant receives. 0our constant variablesare ones that are kept the sae in all your test
subjects. ,ith the bean plant exaple# you need to be sure each plant is treated
exactly the sae except for the aount of light given to each. ,ater each the sae
aount# plant each seed at the sae depth# and ake sure you use the sae kind of
soil for each. !his prevents other changing variables fro throwing off your data.
!he second step to getting accurate experient results is to use multiple test
subjects. -sing the bean plant exaple# if you used only three test subjects .one as
the control# one with six hours of light and one with two hours/ then you ight get
soe skewed results. )ther factors than light ight play a part in stunting the growth
of one of the plants""the seed ight have been planted too deep or a parasite ight
have attacked the roots. !o avoid this kind of proble# use ore test subjects so that
you can average the results and look for consistent patterns.
In the bean plant exaple# you ight want to use six plants altogether. 1ave two of
the be the control .just in case one doesn't survive/""give the full sunlight and treat
the norally. !he others can be your 'test subjects'. (et's say you cover two with a
box for two hours during a sunny part of the day# and the other two you cover for six
hours.
An essential part of the experientation process is to record data. )ne easy way to
do this is to keep a notebook# usually with daily or weekly observations and possibly a
graph to show how the results developed over tie. 0ou ight also want to ake
sketches or take photographs. 2eep in ind that you ight use soe of these records
for your project display at the science fair# so be neat and organized!
3udges often use the following criteria for evaluation of science fair projects# so
consider these as you design your experient$ thoroughness.does this project do a
good job of covering the topic&/# creativity# clarity# skill.what did it take to design
and carry out the experient&/# and scientific thought.